Primary Cell and Mouse Metabolism Core (Core B). Xiaoxia Li, Ph.D., Core Leader Project Summary/Abstract The Core serves the common need of all three Projects for investigating various primary cells and mouse metabolic phenotypes. The Core will facilitate primary cell-based experiments, including isolation and culturing of primary cells; co-culture model to enable ex vivo study of crosstalk between cell types; usage of the Seahorse cell metabolism analyzer. The other purpose of the Core is to provide technical assistance to in vivo studies of the obesity-associated inflammatory disease model. The Core will offer consultation for setting up the high-fat diet (HFD) induced obesity model; perform glucose and insulin tolerance tests; provide technical assistance in sample preparation and analyses from experimental mice. Dr. Li, the Core Leader, has more than 10 years of experience using primary cell culture and mice as research models. Dr. Yu, Core Manager, has extensive experience with techniques of primary cell culture and HFD-induced obesity model. In essence, the proposed core service will standardize the primary cell culturing system and the data acquisition for the obesity model. Such standardization will economize the cost of experiments and enable inter-laboratory collaboration and data comparison.